Chapter 3.1 – Running Away from Home

Why is dawn breaking so dimly?

She staggered as she got up from the bed.

She had dreamed. It had been, quite literally, a nonsensical dream. In the dream, she kept being chased by a large dog. She ran away desperately until she got tired and gave up. Since it was a dream anyway, what did it matter if she got bitten?

But the dog kept biting only her fingers. It was chaos with all the biting, sucking, and licking. Finally, she was able to send the dog away only after her fingers had swollen up.

After confirming the dog wagging its tail and leisurely disappearing, she turned around to see dawn breaking.

Her eyes were dazzled by that dimness. Still, it was the first time she had seen a sunrise so close.

She pressed her forehead with her hand, chasing away the drowsiness.

There was a slight headache. It seemed she had a hangover from drinking after a long time. A groan naturally flowed from her mouth.

There wasn’t a place on her body that didn’t ache. She must have fallen or bumped into something somewhere while drunk. It hurt, but it was strange that there were no bruises on her arms and legs.

Yesterday she had gone to a street food stall with Eun-hee. She had stopped going there after getting married, so going after a long time made her get carried away with old memories. It was something she had done uncharacteristically, without thinking about the consequences.

Yesterday, Madam Shin probably called. Though she was a day late, she would visit her today. Before that, the housekeeper’s honey water would save her.

However, when she left the room and went to the kitchen, her husband was there instead of the housekeeper. Sitting on the dining table with his arms crossed, he was drinking a cup of coffee beans.

“The housekeeper isn’t coming today.”

“She’s not coming?”

As if he knew exactly what was in her head, her husband said.

It was quite bewildering since the housekeeper had never been absent before. She wondered if something had happened and thought she should call her. She was about to go to her room to look for her phone when her husband spoke first.

“I told her not to come.”

“Why…”

“Sit down first.”

Her husband made her sit down, opened the ceiling cabinet, and took out a honey container. Then he got lukewarm water from the water purifier and scooped honey into it with a spoon.

Unbelievably, her husband was making honey water. She forgot about trying to argue why he had told the housekeeper not to come, amazed by the surprising sight. Even when her husband placed the cup on the dining table in front of her, telling her to drink.

“Th-thank you.”

“It should be drinkable.”

When she blew on it and drank, the sweet water went down her throat. It was at just the right temperature, neither too cold nor too warm.

Did her husband have such delicacy? She was impressed and acknowledged that it tasted good.

“It does.”

“I mainly made it for Father.”

Her husband had rarely talked about his father. She listened attentively to this story she was hearing for the first time. Judging by his comfortable clothes, it was still before he left for work. Even though she was drunk, she had ghostly woken up in time for her husband’s departure time.

However, her husband turned the conversation to the housekeeper. He said she had already prepared side dishes yesterday, so all they needed to do was heat them up. He also mentioned that the housekeeper had left work later than usual because she waited for her since she didn’t come home until late.

Hearing this, the housekeeper’s reason for absence was quite reasonable. Ah-jin wondered if he was trying to blame her for drinking late last night, but there was no sign of that.

“Um, yesterday…”

“How’s your body?”

She was about to say she was sorry when her husband’s question made her think for a moment. Except for the headache and aches here and there, there was nothing special.

“Well, except for bumping into something somewhere, I’m fine.”

“What did you bump into?”

“I probably just fell or bumped into a chair at the street food stall. I’m fine, so don’t worry about it.”

Having this kind of conversation with her husband when she was sober didn’t seem right after all. It felt like she was reviewing the shabby past from last night, so she made excuses as they came to mind.

One of her husband’s eyebrows twitched. Seeing him frowning with his hands clasped together reminded her exactly of the large dog that had chased her in her dream.

“Let’s eat first.”

Her husband, who had returned to being expressionless, said bluntly. She found it somewhat absurd that she had such thoughts about her husband, who had no cute puppy-like aspects at all.

“…I’ll eat later.”

She felt like she would get indigestion if she ate now. The very fact of eating in front of her husband bothered her. When she said honey water was enough and that she would take care of eating by herself, her husband closed his mouth.

She blew on the remaining honey water and drank it. Apart from the awkwardness of the extremely rare times she sat at the dining table with him, her mood was slightly lifting.

Honey water that her husband had made for her.

It was even surprising that it tasted good. She felt sorry that the amount was decreasing so quickly. It was true that she was trying to break up with that man, but this was somewhat special.

It wasn’t something exchanged for his card or money. The fact that he had made it with his own hands had meaning. It was touching that he had done it for her sake.

Of all the things that had happened with her husband that she had made into memories by herself, today was the best memory.

“Why am I a beast?”

Because of that, she ended up biting her tongue at the words her husband threw out. A groan came from the pain, but she couldn’t let it out in front of her husband’s gaze.

The sharp gaze of his deep eyes was penetrating her. If it weren’t on the bed, it was an extremely rare eye contact between the two of them.

“…What do you mean by that?”

There was still a stinging sensation left on her tongue. Barely moving her tongue to form words, she observed her husband’s expression. He didn’t seem to be joking. He wasn’t someone who knew how to joke either.

“You said I should know, but I don’t understand.”

Whether it was fortunate or not, her husband’s expression wasn’t that serious. It was a casual tone like when he had mentioned his father earlier.

“Did I say that?”

It wasn’t that she was deliberately playing dumb, but she had no choice but to.

It seemed like something she had said while drunk. There was no way she could have said such a thing to her husband while sober.

‘My husband Choi Jin-wook is a beast.’

That was a thought she had only kept to herself since returning from their honeymoon.

Of course, it wasn’t one-sided criticism. She knew better than anyone how much tremendous satisfaction he gave during s*x. That’s precisely why she couldn’t say it in front of her husband.

At class reunions or couple gatherings with her husband’s acquaintances, she always watched her words. It was the same when the wives hung out together, away from the husbands.

As was typical when women were together, marital relations were quite an interesting and stimulating topic.

Among the couple gathering members, there was a woman who was unrestrained in bragging about her husband’s stamina. She would say he wouldn’t let her sleep at night, trying to get reactions from those around her, so she had secretly looked forward to it.

However, she couldn’t help but be disappointed when she mentioned “three times in one night.” It was incomparable to the number with her husband.

But cheers erupted from those around. With reactions asking what the secret was while saying they were envious, she had no choice but to keep her mouth shut even more.

She had never even drunk alcohol with her husband, worried she might make a slip of the tongue. Though she wasn’t weak with alcohol, she had revealed her inner thoughts through drunken behavior even in her younger days.

She herself couldn’t remember anything after sobering up from alcohol. Though she hadn’t caused any major incidents, she felt like she would die of embarrassment.

“You probably don’t remember snoring while sleeping either.”

Lies!

Her head spun from the consecutive double blow her husband had delivered. Not only was it unbelievable that she snored while sleeping, but the most shameful thing was that she had shown that to her husband.

The drunken feeling was about to rise again. At this rate, the honey water she had just drunk would be meaningless.

“Were you always a drinker?”

“…I could drink, more or less.”

Was recommending that she eat breakfast part of her husband’s bigger picture to interrogate her like this?

“Then let’s drink together from now on.”

However, she doubted her ears at her husband’s following words.